John Philip Sousa, the man who wrote such patriotic standards as The Stars and Stripes Forever, also wrote a march for baseball, entitled The National Game. I’ve heard it performed at Orchestra Nights at the ballpark (yeah, Rochester has orchestra night every year), but I just found it on YouTube, so, well, here it is.
Feel free to imagine 19th century baseballers taking the field to this, dressed in uniforms for the Providence Grays or the Boston Beaneats, perhaps while also getting into drunken saloon brawls and going into second base with sharpened spikes. It’s what Old Hoss Radbourn (or at least @OldHossRadbourn) would do.
The Baseball Continuum 